talk t o me and listen to me! - · talk t o me and listen to me! 12 points for supporting our...

Talk To Meand lisTen To Me!

12 Points for supporting our Children in learning

How to Talk

A Brochure for PArents

Englische Ausgabe

0 – 5

Years

Imprint

Owner, publisher and distributor:Office of the Tyrolean Federal State Government, Department of Society and Labour and Department of Education.

Content and concepts: Elisabeth Allgäuer-Hackl, Gerlinde Sammer, Elizabet Hintner Text: Elisabeth Allgäuer-Hackl, Lidwina BosoEditors: Eva Grabherr (okay. zusammen leben), Johann Gstir (Office of the Tyrolean Federal State Government, Department of Society and Labour – Integration Section), Nicola Köfler (City of Innsbruck)Translation: Alice Pfeiffer (syn.tactic texts & translations) and TRADOLEX Language ServicesGraphics: CCK Werbeagentur, Innsbruck; typesetting 2018: Birgit Raitmayr | pixlerei.atPrint: Alpina Druck GmbH, Innsbruck 1st edition 2010 | 2nd edition 2018

© okay. zusammen leben / Project Centre for Immigration and Integration (Verein Aktion Mitarbeit), Dornbirn (Austria), November 2008.

The core contents of this booklet were developed in 2008 for the Federal State of Vorarlberg as part of the programme “More Language: early encouragement of language skills and multilingualism – a challenge for families and early years education centres”. Information about the programme can be found at: www.okay-line.at

Information: Amt der Tiroler Landesregierung, Abteilung Gesellschaft und Arbeit (Office of the Tyrolean Federal State Government, Department of Society and Labour)Meinhardstraße 16, 6020 InnsbruckPhone: +43 (0) 512/508-807804, Fax +43 (0) 512/508-747805Email: [email protected]: www.tirol.gv.at/integration

Amt der Tiroler Landesregierung, Abteilung Bildung (Office of the Tyrolean Federal State Government, Department of Education) Heiliggeiststraße 7–9, 6020 InnsbruckPhone: +43 (0) 512/508-2552, Fax +43 (0) 512/508-742555Email: [email protected]: www.tirol.gv.at/abteilung-bildung

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Dear Parents,

We are pleased that you have received our booklet “Talk to me and listen to me!”

Children are our most precious possession and it is they who will shape our future. They deserve our strong

encouragement on their own journey. As parents, you want the best for your child – our booklet singles out

an especially important area of your child’s future development, and we would like to offer you our support in

it: Having a good grasp of speech and language is crucial in today’s and tomorrow’s society, and it forms an

important basis for a good professional career. The first few years of life are a very important period for human

language development, and you will be able to guide and encourage your children as they learn to talk. You will

find lots of helpful information in our booklet. The booklet describes – with lots of practical tips – how children

can easily grow up with one, two or even more languages.

There’s no wizardry about helping children to learn to talk. The important things are your attention and your ac-

tive involvement. So don’t just read this booklet through once. Treat it as your companion. Time and again you will

discover things which will be helpful as you care for your children during their early years.

May you have a great deal of happiness with your children!

With best wishes,

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Member of the Provincial Government Gabriele Fischer

Member of the Provincial Government Beate Palfrader

Did you know that ...

... you can even support your child’s speech and language development during pregnancy?

Hello, you can’t see me, but I can hear you!

What the experts say:

• a child is already aware of voices, particularly that of his/her mother, after the fourth month of pregnancy.

• a child learns to recognize the melody of his/her native language even before he/she is born. A baby in the womb is also influenced by music, sounds and noises.

• Parents are their child’s chief role models for language during his/her first years of life. it is therefore important during pregnancy that parents think about which language or languages they want to speak with their child.

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Simple everyday things ...

... you can dofor your child

fYou can start to tell your child about the world you live in as early as the first months of pregnancy. Tell your child about the things that concern you.

Read the following to help you decide which language or languages to speak at home with your child:

talk to your child in the language that you feel most comfortable with and that you speak best. When you do this, you will be providing your child with the largest vocabulary possible. and you will also be laying the foundation for all the other languages that your child will learn in his/her life.

it can also be of great advantage for your child if you and your husband/partner speak different languages. each of you can then interact with your child in the language that you speak best. This means that your child will grow up imitating good speech patterns in two languages.

in addition to the language that you decide to speak at home, it is very important that your child also learns German – the language of the country where he/she lives. it is essential for your child to have a good command of German if he/she is going to feel at home here, make new friends and receive a good education. Your child can still learn to speak German well, even if you speak a different language with him/her at home.

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... your child learns most when you speak with him/her the language you know best?

Mummy’s language is okay! –Daddy’s language is okay!


• Good emotional ties provide an important basis for a child’s general development as well as for his/her speech and language development. Children immediately notice if their parents are talking to them in a language they feel comfortable with and are confident about speaking.

• The better parents can speak the language they want to pass on to their child, the better that is for their child’s speech and language development.

• Having a good command of your native language is the best prerequisite for learning other languages. every language contains knowledge about the world that you also pass on to your child.

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hspeak the language or the dialect that you know best with your child.Talk with your child as much as possible and give him/her lots of opportunity and time to talk himself/herself.

Tell your child things about who you are and where you come from by telling sto-ries, singing songs and playing children’s games from your home country. That is important because children need roots to grow and develop.

Find new and positive ways for your child to learn other languages. set a good example for your child. if you have a positive attitude towards languages and lan-guage learning, towards keeping up your own language and German, that attitude will rub off on your child.

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... self-confidence is the best prerequisite for your child’s speech and language development?

I am lovable the way I am.


• a child particularly needs the love and affection of his/her parent/s in order to deve-lop and to learn how to talk. a child has to feel loved and accepted if he/she is to grow in self-confidence. This energy is the key to every child’s development.

• a child needs to feel secure and wanted. if you don’t have time to listen to your child at any one moment, tell him/her why and let him/her know when you will have time. Children need to know the reasons why things are the way they are or why something is not possible.

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kYou will have lots of opportunities throughout the day to talk with your child and to engage him/her in conversation. You can and should start doing that the very day your child is born.

tell your child what you are doing with him/her at that very moment. React to the sounds and noises he/she is making and show him/her that you enjoy listening to them.

Don’t put off promises indefinitely. That will make your child feel insecure. keep the promises you make to your child.

Talk to your child and listen carefully to what he wants to tell you! Let your child tell you about his/her experiences. Always let your child finish his/her stories and never interrupt them.

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M... your child can easily cope with speaking two or more languages when growing up?

There is room in my head for two or even more languages.


• it is not a problem for children to grow up speaking two or more languages. Millions of children live in countries where lots of languages are spoken in everyday situations. speaking more than one language won’t harm your child.

• Multilingual children develop like monolingual children, that is, at their own pace. some start talking early, others later ; some talk a lot, and others less.

• The way children learn languages is full of dynamism. Children are always in the pro-cess of learning new things and integrating what they already know. Mixing up langu-ages is just part of that process.

• You should only start to be concerned and consult your arzt/Ärztin (G.P.) or another professional if your child’s speech has not developed for some time or he/she stops talking altogether.

• Children growing up speaking more than one language need specific support in all languages. Parents can do a lot of different things to ensure that their children become good learners.

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MWhat should you do if you are raising your child in your native language, for example, Turkish, Bosnian/Croatian/serbian, kurdish, Russian, spanish etc., and the lan-guage spoken outside the home is German?

Talk to your child in your own language as much as possible. Get to know families in your neighbourhood who speak German. Help your child to make German-speaking friends. arrange for your child to join a spielgruppe (playgroup) or a kindergarten (kindergarten). That will help him/her to grow and develop. The sooner he/she has contact with Ger-man-speaking children, the faster and easier he/she will learn German.

if each parent speaks a different language very well, children have the oppor-tunity to learn two languages. Make sure that you have clear rules if you and your partner speak different languages. This is particularly important for very young children. each of you should talk to your child in your own language. in that way, your child learns to asso-ciate a specific person with a specific language. And that will help him/her to sort out the languages in his/her head.

(The choice of language can also be determined by the situation: one language may be used in everyday communication while the other is spoken at dinner, doing home-work or for telling bedtime stories. This approach is called creating “language islands.”)

Regardless of whether your child grows up speaking one, two or three languages, it is paramount to be a good and patient listener.

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... only children who can hear well also learn to speak well? And did you know that if you talk to babies in a higher pitch

they respond faster?

Talk to me and listen to me!


• Good hearing is a prerequisite for being able to speak well. after six months a healthy baby should be making more and more noises, imitating sounds, talking with himself/herself. if that is not the case, you should have your baby’s hearing tested again.

• Hearing-impaired babies also make sounds in the first months of life, but they then become increasingly quieter.

• Talking to babies in a higher pitch increases their attention span. That’s how you can get a baby to smile early on.

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Kobserve your child, particularly after the sixth month. does he/she react to sounds? does he/she turn his/her head when you call his/her name?

Musical clocks and rattles are especially suited for attracting your baby’s attention.

Talk to your child as often as possible. You can talk about everything you do, either on your own or with your child! imitate the sounds and coos of your baby. You should be talking to your young baby from the moment he/she is born and telling him/her what you are doing with him/her at that very moment. Children of all ages love songs and nursery rhymes. don’t forget to take your baby or toddler for a check-up, particularly after an ear in-fection: you can go to the elternberatung (parent counselling in your municipality) or to your arzt/Ärztin (G.P.).

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... all the senses are used for learning to talk? Touch, sight, experience, grasping things etc.

are as important as hearing.

I can do it myself!


• Hearing, seeing, touching, moving, grasping, experiencing movement, sensing gravity and lots more things help your baby to experience and understand the world. This is how babies develop their emotional, intellectual and social skills and even their com-mand of language.

• Your baby will understand what the words “smooth” and “rough” mean when he/she is allowed to grasp things. Being allowed to taste foods will help him/her to compre-hend the words “sweet” and “sour.” He/she will figure out what corners and edges are when he/she is allowed to crawl. Babies develop an understanding of the abstract concepts behind words by exploring the world around them.

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Uhold your baby in your arms as often as pos-sible and let your child feel positive about being touched by you.

let your child play with different objects, touch, hold and let go of them. Give him/her something to chew on. let your baby experience as many things as possible by himself/herself.

When your child is older, let him/her try out as many activities as possible: at home, crawling/running on the playground or in the garden, playing with sand and water, shouting and singing, helping you with the cooking, setting the table, digging up soil and planting things in the garden.

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G... there is a connection between movement, game,

healthy nutrition, caries-free and healthy teeth and your child’s speech and language development?

I can do more things than you imagine!


• Children need to have lots of experience playing and moving. Providing children with many opportunities to move and play helps them to learn how to speak well. You should allow your child to jump, hop, walk, run, dance etc. language and movement go hand in hand.

• Mouth and tongue movements become more precise when children’s movements, especially their fine motor skills, become more refined through play.

• Correct tooth alignment is important for a child to be able to learn how to speak correctly. Good, intelligible pronunciation is part of speaking a language well.

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Glet your child balance on a low wall, eat with his/her fingers, drink out of a straw, blow cotton wool balls etc. Take your child to the playground and into the countryside as often as you can. Build or make things with your child and let him/her play with scissors. Children cannot hurt themselves if an adult is present. They learn precise movements and are able to develop their imagination.

You should only give your child a dummy or pacifier to use as ra-rely as possible, and you must be sure to break him of the habit by his 2nd birthday. long-term use of a dummy can cause dental and speech problems.

healthy food and something to chew on are also important.

Your child should not drink sweetened drinks, because too much sugar harms dental and physical health. Water or cooled tea are good remedies for thirst as well!

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... talking and playing with your child on a daily basis can help him/her to make enormous progress

in learning how to speak?

Are you going to play with me?


• enjoy doing things with your child, talking to him and playing with him. one quite incidental result of these activities is that your child‘s brain will develop patterns and networks which will be crucial for his speech development and for his learning ability later on when he is at school.

• listening to and actively using a language or languages on a regular basis helps your child to discover the rules of that language/those languages. Your child can learn words, explore the grammar of those languages and communicate correctly with others. Your child needs lots of input and should not only be listening a lot but also talking a lot.

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YTalk and play with your child on his/her level. Talk directly to your child – at least fifteen minutes per day.

Talk also to your child when he/she is doing everyday activities, e.g. taking off his/her shoes and coat, putting on slippers, drinking a cup of tea, being put to bed etc. instructions and orders are not enough.

Use varied language structures and expressions. in that way, your child will increase his/her vocabulary (For example, use different words to express the same content: beau-tiful, pretty, nice etc.).

nursery rhymes and songs are a great source for children of all ages to develop speech and language. if you can no longer remember the songs and nursery rhymes told to you as a child, ask your parents or older family members, or look them up in books. alternatively, you can make up your own nursery rhymes and stories.

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... you should not constantly correct a child and require him/her to repeat the correct word or phrase?

I want to tell you something!


• it is important that you listen attentively to your child when he wants to tell you so-mething.

• Corrections take all the fun out of talking. The more effective technique is corrective repetition.

• Children do not always show what they can do. They often understand a lot more and talk a lot less. Children need time to grow.

• When children grow up speaking two languages, one language may be more develo-ped and the other less developed. That may change in the course of time and depends on what is important in a certain phase of the child’s life and the experiences he/she associates with a particular language. For example, bilingual children might lose interest in their native language the moment they start attending a German-speaking kinder-garten (kindergarten) and German-speaking friends become important for them.

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FListen attentively to your child!

Whenever your child says a sentence or a word incorrectly, repeat it matter-of-factly in the correct form. do not force your child to repeat the correct word or phrase.

Do not get upset if your child does not immediately use a new word.

Be patient. Talk with your child in your native language even if he/she answers you in another. When a child is bilingual, he/she may refuse to actively use one language, even for a longer period of time.

When your child is going through such a phase, do not put pressure on him/her. Give your child as many opportunities as possible to actively use both languages. That is the best thing to do.

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... reading aloud and discussing stories are very important ways of supporting your child’s speech and language development

and of preparing him/her to start school?

Will you continue reading the story to me today?


• Research shows that reading aloud to children in the very first years of their life has a beneficial effect on children’s speech and language development.

• Reading aloud and telling stories expand a child’s vocabulary. They also create a good foundation for reading and writing. Written language differs from spoken language. When you read aloud to your child, he/she is also listening to and learning the written language.

• Children who listen to and retell stories learn a lot of things that will later help them in school. For example, they learn to listen, to concentrate, to remember events, new words, new sentence patterns etc.

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JRead picture books and story-books aloud; read a little every day in the lan-guage or languages that you speak at home with your child. You can borrow picture books and story-books in various languages from nu-merous libraries in Tyrol. ask at the library where you live whether they have books in your native language.

All children love rituals. Bedtime stories are such a ritual. Children love to hear the same stories over and over again until they have understood everything completely and can repeat the story themselves. Help your child to retell stories by, for example, asking interesting questions.

even if your German is not perfect, you can still probably read German picture books aloud to your child.

Grandparents and other people the child knows and trusts can also be good listeners and story-tellers.

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... children learn best when playing or doing things with others and not when sitting in front of the TV or the computer?

TV? No, thanks! It’s much more fun playing with Mummy / with Daddy … !


• as well as hearing and listening to sounds children need to understand speech and the meaning of what is being said to them in order to learn languages: they have to “grasp” what they see and hear.

• a child only learns how to speak well when he/she has direct contact with other people: with his/her mother and/or father, brothers and sisters, with extended family members and later with friends.

• We recommend watching good children’s films with your child. Watching TV for hours on end or playing computer games is harmful. Children do not learn much from them.

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ilet your child participate in your life. Give him/her opportunities to literally grasp new words with his/her hands. such activities as letting your child help you cook and bake, play with water, sand and stones or plasticine are much better suited to support your child’s development than TV.

If you let your child watch tV, you should decide what he/she may watch and discuss the programme or film with him/her. In that way, your child will better understand what he/she is watching and will also learn new words.

You can borrow lots of good games from libraries. You can easily provide your child with a variety of stimulating things to do without spending a fortune.

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... children can learn to speak very good German if they have a German-speaking friend from an early age

or attend a Spielgruppe (playgroup) or Kindergarten (kindergarten)?

I also want to be with other children.


• a good command of German is important for your child: for his/her life in austria, his/her well-being at school and for his/her future career.

• in order to learn German your child needs lots of encouragement and many different opportunities to hear and speak the language. Friends who speak good German are an excellent source of motivation.

• Regular attendance at a spielgruppe (playgroup) or a kindergarten (kindergarten) after his/her third birthday gives your child the time to consolidate his/her command of German before starting school as well as to prepare for the challenges ahead. even if the language you speak at home is not German, your child can still learn to speak German very well if he/she makes use of every opportunity to practice the language.

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... you can dofor your childw

support your child whenever he/she wants to visit friends or invite them home. Children usually learn the languages that are important for everyday interac-tion very quickly.

enrol your child in a spielgruppe (playgroup) or kindergarten (kindergarten) as soon as

he/she is 30–36 months old. Children are usually mature enough at that age and love to make new friends and join in games and activities with other children.

Your child can also be taken care of by a child-care service when he/she is younger if you work or think that your child will benefit educationally.

If you speak another language at home other than German, you can use games to prepare your child for speaking German as a new langua-ge at the spielgruppe (playgroup) or kindergarten (kindergarten). Talk to him/her about that, make him/her curious, teach him/her new words that he/she will need in his/her new surroundings.Tell your child what a great thing it is for him/her to be able to speak several languages.

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Please take to heart that

• We quickly forget languages in which we do not invest any time or effort. We have to keep up a language and use it if we do not want to forget it.

• When your child goes to kindergarten (kindergarten) and later to school, German will become an important language for him/her. Your child will need your support and encouragement. Please do not forget to keep up the language that your child has grown up speaking, your native language or the language you speak at home.

• The muttersprachliche Unterricht (native language instruction) is a good way for your child to practice his/her first language. Ask at your child’s school and enrol him/her in such a class.

• encourage your child to read a lot in German and in other languages.

• every language is something to treasure. its value grows the more you use it and the better you speak it. nowadays, a good command of languages is decisive for a person’s profession and his/her role in society.

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DWhen your child starts school

• starting school is an important step towards independence for your child. You need to give your child the feeling that you are within reach and that he can always count on you to be there for him.

• Give him as much freedom as possible and as much security as is necessary. • don‘t do anything for your child that he can already do for himself. Be patient when he

is dressing or undressing himself, tying a bow or packing his own bag to go swimming. encourage your child to be independent!

• Give your child opportunities to spend time playing with other children well before his first day at school. At school it will be very important for him to be able to keep to the rules and to show consideration for others.

• if your child works with his left hand, don‘t force him to use his right! This could give rise to learning difficulties.

• You can also encourage your child by … giving him small assignments and tasks … playing, painting, drawing and crafting together with him/her … enabling him/her to get in contact with different materials … inventing stories and rhymes together … spending time outdoors with him/her cf. erste schritte auf dem Weg zur schule [First steps to school]. a booklet produced by the Tyrol Federal state education authority – a school advisory service for foreign nationals. innsbruck 2002.

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organisations and services which

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familieninfo tirol (family Info tyrol)Tyrol Family info is a federal state service which operates as a branch of the department of society and labour – Family section. since it was set up in June 2007 in the new sillpark Centre in innsbruck, it has provided an ideal point of contact where families can obtain answers to a wide range of questions. The Family info team are hardly ever lost for an answer – and on the rare occasions when they are, they are sure to know who can pro-vide the relevant information and where he or she can be contacted.

familien- und senioreninfo tirol (family and senior Info tyrol):Museumstraße 38 / Sillpark, 2. floorinnsbruck [email protected] www.familien-senioreninfo.atFreephone 0800 800 508

city of InnsbruckMA V – Amt für Kinder, Jugend und Generationen (Welfare Office for Children, Youth and Generations): responsible, amongst other things, for the city‘s nursery schools and after-school care; information and advice.6020 innsbruck, Maria-Theresien-straße 18Phone: + 43 (0) 512/5360 direct dial 4214 and 4218Fax: + 43 (0) 512/5360-1736post.kinder.jugendbetreuung@innsbruck.gv.atwww.innsbruck.at

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advise and support parents in the tyrol

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Mutter-eltern-Beratung (Advice for Mothers and Parents)The Mothers & Parents advice Team is happy to help parents at as early a stage as possi-ble with all questions arising out of pregnancy, birth and living with a child. The Mothers & Parents advice service is available throughout the Tyrol, and provides advice, encourage-ment, support and opportunities for knowledge exchange. • on questions about health care and baby care• about breastfeeding and age-appropriate nutrition• about motor development and sleep problems• about development – encouragement – discipline and any other questions that give you concern!

Mutter-eltern-Beratung (Advice for Mothers and Parents)an-der-lan-straße 436020 innsbruckPhone: +43 (0)512/260135Office hours: Mon–Fri 8:00–12:00 email: [email protected]

Local Authority Offices / City HallYou can also obtain information about child care, playgroups and nursery schools in your area from your Local Authority Offices or from the City Hall.

LibrariesYou will find the addresses and opening hours of libraries in the Tyrol on the home page of the Austrian Library Association (Büchereiverband Österreich): http://www.bvoe.at

talk t o me and listen to me! - · talk t o me and listen to me! 12 points for supporting our...

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